La Rosa Knows

Scroll to Info & Navigation

Tag Results

9 posts tagged author

Week 1 of NaNoWriMo: Completed

It’s Day 7 of my commitment to writing a novel in 30 days and…I’ve learned quite a bit.

image

Here’s what I now know:

  1. I can write more than I ever thought I could. Like, I might be a cyborg sent from the future. I’m a full-time writer for work. Which means that my day starts at 7 am, with an hour of NaNo writing. Then starts again at 9 a.m., when I head into the office to blog for E!. The rest of the novel writing continues on my lunch hour, when I get home from work at 7, and well into the night. I’m a machine.
  2. Excuses come in many forms and flow as quickly as water. Like, I could watchHomelandagain. Or I need more tea. And what would my hair look like in a braided bun on top of my head? Maybe I should go try that out and take a bunch of self portraits.
  3. I am capable of power naps. Believe it or not, I’ve never been much of a napper. Don’t really care for it. That was before, of course, when I was getting plenty of sleep and my body wasn’t in a constant state of twitchy. Now I just luuurrrve me some power nappage.
  4. My friends are fantastic. And I’m not just saying that. I have really supportive friends who check in and hold me accountable. They push me everyday and, to be honest, I would not have started any of this were it not for their encouragement. (Thank you, my mouses!!!)

image

     5.  If Lauren Conradcan write a book, then so can I!

First of All…

There’s a store called The Literary Gift Company and none of you have bought me anything from it, so there’s the first problem.

Secondly, they have literary maps—as in, famous authors’ names penned into the shape of the United States, Britain and Northern Ireland.

What I’m trying to say is, I can see Vladimir Nabokov’s name and maybe, just maybe, that means I am him.

Do you see, do you finally see now?

It’s always fun to hear writers talk about how they succeeded, especially because it usually doesn’t involve anything about a certain college or a special mentor.

I really enjoyed listening to Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. He’s refreshingly upbeat and I loved this piece of veiled advice:

“I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure and to stop when it felt like work which meant that life did not feel like work.”

One thing I can always count on when my parents visit is that I’ll reap the benefits of my father’s achilles heel: bookstores. I took my Mom and Dad to Book Soup on Sunset and we went to towwwwwwn, folks. “ Lint byChris Ware The Marriage Plot...

One thing I can always count on when my parents visit is that I’ll reap the benefits of my father’s achilles heel: bookstores.

I took my Mom and Dad to Book Soup on Sunset and we went to towwwwwwn, folks.

Lint byChris Ware

The Marriage Plot byJeffrey Eugenides (why haven’t I read this before?!? I don’t know, I meant to and then forgot to buy it…I dunno.)

Black Hole byCharles Burns

Abecederia byBlexbolex

I started reading Lint, which is so beautifully illustrated and really emotional but fun. As you may have noticed, 3 out of 4 of these are graphic novels…Don’t you judge me.